Dial H #3

No weird heroes on the front cover to guess the names of!

Issue #2 ended with Nelson and Manteau (I almost called her Portmanteau. Maybe that's her real name and she'll have some sort of power where she combines two things into one thing? So she wears a cloak so people think she's simply Manteau which hides her real Portmanteau powers) getting together at the Magic Rotary Phone and teaming up. She's willing to explain what's going on but first they need to get away from Vernon and his thugs.

But before Nelson can reach the phone, he transforms into an amalgam of several of his former superhero identities for a few seconds. He seems to retain some of their memories and powers but maybe he needs more experience to access them. Vernon and his gang fire at him and hit the phone booth instead of Nelson.

This is probably a good thing. Now he'll learn the rotary dial probably works even when not attached to the booth.

Manteau and Nelson escape via Manteau's current fire hose arms hooked up to fire hydrant feet super power. Manteau actually has her own dial but claims her name is simply Manteau and that that is somehow important. Since her dial isn't attached to anything, she thinks she may be able to fix Nelson's dial as well. She gives him a little history on the subject as she tinkers.

Dial "O" for Operator? Or Owner? Owner-Operator?

The identity of Manteau is important for her to fix on a single identity and not lose herself in the various identities that come with the super powers the dial bestows upon her. When she asks Nelson the greatest fight he's ever been in, his answer is one of Chimney Boy's memories. Nelson now has the lives of his various incarnations in his subconscious.

Throughout various parts of the comic, the bad guys describe their overall plan but it's a bit confusing. I'll try to piece it together. Ex Nihilo wants to harness the Void. Get power out of the nothingness. And The Squid works with Ex Nihilo because The Squid wants to go home. Somehow the two goals overlap. The people that have been falling into comas were witnesses to The Squid's coming and a robbery and also the appearance of whatever thing Ex Nihilo is hunting. Because the witnesses were close to this thing's appearance, they have small traces of its residue within them. Ex Nihilo unlocks this residue or void and uses it for her own ends. Ex Nihilo finally believes that she can lure IT to her by filling the brother of a witness with Void. I think. Something like that.

Anyway, Ex Nihilo is trying to summon something out of the Void. So it's still sounding very Lovecraftian. This thing she summons will be very dangerous. But it will somehow allow The Squid to get back home (to the Void, maybe? He's sort of Lovecraftian) and it will give Ex Nihilo a load of power.

Manteau has been keeping track of weird dial related incidents for years and she knows about the robbery in Halifax and that the coma victims are related. She's keeping tabs on the latest guy coming to town connected to the weirdness. And he just so happens to be the same guy Ex Nihilo and The Squid are paying a visit to to fill with void. Manteau has tapped his phone which he's speaking on when he answers the door and is attacked by Ex Nihilo. She gives Nelson back his dial which is kind of fixed (although she mentions all of the dials are messed up in one way or another) and Nelson tries to transform. It fails on the first try but he sees some person coming toward him while he's partially transformed.

I guess it's the same thing Ex Nihilo and The Squid are trying to summon.

Nelson (as Baroness Resin) and Manteau break into the man's hotel room just as the creature is summoned out of him.

I guess looking into the Abyss is pretty Lovecraftian.

Dial H #3 Rating: No change. This issue was nearly all explication. It felt a little packed and that comes across in my commentary which is all explanation so that I'll continue to understand what's going on next month. I really should go back and punch it up!